This invention relates to a therapeutic appliance for aiding in recovering the functions of carpal joints, hands and fingers incapacitated due to diseases or impediments in the central nervous system, such as cerebrovascular troubles, cerebral injury, cerebral palsy and spinal damage, as well as impediments in the peripheral nervous system, joints, muscles, and tendons.
In the event that the forearms, carpal joints, hands and fingers are functionally disordered due to the foregoing diseases and impediments, it is required to conduct exercise for recovering mobility concurrently with medical treatment. However, it has been heretofore recognized very difficult to recover the functions of incapacitated carpal joints, hands and fingers. No satisfactory therapeutic appliance for recovering the functions has yet been developed for all research in the modern rehabilitative medicine. For example, many conventional therapeutic appliances utilizing air pressure or spring actions to aid in restoring the extensibility of carpal joints, hands and fingers inflicted with bending contracture or dysfunction in extending motion have produced no satisfactory results in that they involve complicated motions and impose excessive burdens on patients.
In this regard the present inventors have proposed a therapeutic appliance for improving functions of hand fingers as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,619,250. The appliance of said patent application comprises a palm splint cloth shaped so as to accommodate a hand with its fingers spread apart. Finger retainer members are disposed on the front surface of the splint cloth for holding the fingers individually in their spread apart positions. A plurality of first bladders is disposed on the front surface of said palm splint cloth and positioned between adjacent fingers, except between the thumb and forefinger, for spreading the fingers apart from each other. A plurality of second bladders is disposed on the opposite surface of said palm splint cloth for extending the fingers, hand and carpal joint. Fluid (air) supply and discharge tubes are connected to the first and second bladders for supplying and discharging fluid to and from the bladders. Compressed air is supplied to the bladders through the tubes and discharged from the bladders through the tubes. This operation may be repeated to impart extending and opening motions to the functionally incapacitated carpal joint, hand and fingers intermittently and rythmically to thereby remedy the bending contracture and dysfunction in extending motion as well as to create a motive for triggering self-motivating capacity. This appliance has provided drastically excellent effects in improving functions of hands and fingers by using a flat palm-shaped splint cloth, rather than the conventional glove-type splint, and finger retainers for holding the fingers individually to make it easy for a patient to wear the appliance on his or her bent and contractured fingers and by disposing bladders between adjacent fingers to effectively spread the fingers apart in addition to extending the fingers, in contrast to the prior art glove-type appliance. The therapeutic appliance disclosed in the aforesaid patent application has thus gained favorable reception in the medical field.
However, the present inventors are still not totally satisfied with this appliance in that it does not provide sufficient bending of the patient's carpal joint towards the back of the hand.